I'm not sure I really wanted to go to Virginia, but if it ensures I'm able to work on my mother's research, I'll put extra food in my cats' dishes and pack my bags once more.
"I hear you’re going to Virginia,” Julien says when he joins me at my desk a little while later.
"To the regional lab in Norfolk," I say, pleased to be doing something real. "There are special tests that can be done there. Ed wants me to meet the Council researcher, start working on my mother's research."
"I don't like it but if Ed wants it, OK." Julien shrugs. "I'll send Vasily with you. I have work to do here and can't go."
Vasily accompanies me on the trip, sitting a few rows over on the plane. I'd like him to sit with me, because he's really sweet and I need someone to make me feel safe, but he says no. It's best for us to be separate for security reasons. I make it through the short flight fine because I'm reading a file Terri gave me that describes the work we'll be doing and it's exciting and way beyond my pay grade, because although I've taken immunology and molecular genetics in my junior year at Boston U, I'm not qualified to work in a real lab.
We get rooms at the Sheraton on Waterside, Vasily next to mine, and I'm surprised Julien let me come here, considering how worried Michel was when I went to Montana. Maybe he feels safer now that he has a deal with Soren. Whatever, it makes me feel somewhat like an adult to be staying by myself.
The Sheraton is close enough to the Virginia Department of Forensic Sciences lab that I can walk if I want to get some exercise, which I do, Vasily trailing behind me in a rental car. I walk, enjoying the smell of the fresh salt air. Gulls wheel in the sky, diving in sequence to pick up bits of my morning bagel as I throw them into the air. In the distance is a large Navy aircraft carrier. I'd like to take a tour of the museum if I have the time.
I sign in at reception and wait for my contact to come and meet me at the security desk.
In about five minutes, a bespectacled man in his early thirties comes out to meet me. Dr. Graydon, head of Biochemistry. He extends a hand and I take it, trying to match the strength and warmth of it.
"Agent Hayden – so nice to meet you. Agent O'Neil sent me an email introducing you and putting a good word in. He and the department head are old friends from college." He wags his brows as if that's a hint that his boss is in the Council as well.
We walk down the hallways leading from the security desk to the administration offices at the north side of the building.
"I'll take you to the lab later, but first I wanted to introduce you to a few of the crew. Insiders."
I smile and shake about a half-dozen hands and am able to make it through the preliminaries. Finally, Graydon takes me through to the lab facilities and we sit down to discuss the work we want done. His office is small and filled with bookshelves, his desk littered with journal articles.
While we're working, I think about Julien's daywalking ability and decide to broach the subject to Graydon.
"Do you know of any research conducted by the military on immune system enhancement in vampirism?" I ask.
Graydon raises his eyebrows and pulls out an address book.
"Immunity? I do toxicology. But I used to study with someone who worked at the Pentagon for a term. She's a civilian researcher now on contract to the Council and might have some idea who you could talk to. I'll give you her name. Don't know if it would be any help, but you could try. Just mention my name and that might break the ice with her."
"Thanks." I take the card on which he's written her name and phone number.
The rest of the morning goes quickly, and after a lunch at a local fish and chips joint with a couple of the researchers, we spend the afternoon processing the shipment of blood samples from the Council prison facilities, filling out lab requisitions, doing various bureaucratic paperwork necessary to get the tests done. This is all new to me, who has only been in university labs and so I'm completely curious and engrossed in the work.
The afternoon flies by and when we're through for the day, I turn down an offer of a ride, preferring to walk back along the waterfront to catch the sunset. I don't see Vasily trailing behind me, but maybe he's farther back, not wanting to bother me.
This is the life I imagined when starting my science degree – doing research, learning more about vampirism, hoping one day to help eradicate the disease that killed so many innocent people over the millennia. The sun finally sets and the reproduction gaslight lamps flicker on, lighting the walkway that skirts the wharf and leads back to Waterside and my hotel. A couple passes me on a stroll, their heads together, laughing over some shared joke.
Seeing them makes my gut knot just a bit, for the only male attention I've received in several years is that of a pair of vampire-killing vampires, neither one of which has any intention of having a normal relationship with me.
What kind of freak am I?
I look up as a man passes. He grabs my arm and shock washes over me as I realize it's Julien. He's dressed in a dark trench, a fedora and scarf.
"Didn't Michel tell you not to walk alone after dark?" he says, his voice rough.
I pull my arm away, anger filling me.
"Are you never going to let me just be?" I struggle with him for a moment, hitting his hand with my fist. "Are you brothers always going to sneak up on me, scare the shit out of me?"
"Hey-hey-hey!" he laughs, easily maintaining his grip. "Take it easy." He manages to pull me closer.
A man walking down the boardwalk calls out from a distance.
"Are you OK, lady?"